Book construction



OCLJ30, 1934. MUELLER 1,979,209

BOOK CONSTRUCTION Filed July 29, 1932 Patented Oct. 30, 1934 I; ETEDSTATES PATENT OFFICE 1 Claim.

This invention relates to book construction.

While the invention is applicable to the construction of books forvarious purposes, it is particularly applicable to the construction ofrecord 5 books, that is books within which records are to be writtenfrom time to time.

An object of the invention is to provide a simple, practical and"efficient book construction wherein, when the book is open, the leavesthere- 19' of at both sides of the binding will lie suitably fiat andsmooth to enable writing to be readily done upon the leaves, even uponportions of the leaves close to the binding.

A further object is to so construct the book that I .15 it will embodyan automatically operable com- 20 from one position to another so as tomore adequately support the leaves to be written upon.

A more specific object is to so construct the book as to embody certainpivotal connections at its binder portion and arranged in such relationT that when an increasing number of leaves are swung from one-side ofthe binder portion to the other, portions of the book structure willswing upon certain of said pivots, without definite attention or efforton the part of the operator, and in a manner such that the leaves may atall times be suitably supported for being written upon.

Other objects and aims of the invention, more or less specific thanthose referred to above, will be in part obvious and in part pointed outin the course of the following description of the :elements,combinations, arrangements of parts and applications of principlesconstituting the invention; and the scope of protection contemplatedWill be indicated in the appended claim.

In the accompanying drawing which is to be taken as a part of thisspecification, and in which I have shown merely a preferred form ofembodiment of the invention:--

Fig. 1 is a perspective View of a book constructed in accordance withthis invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary transverse sectional view through thebinder portion of the book seen in Fig. 1, being substantially upon theplane of line IIII of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic end view, showing the book thrown open in afirst position, and

Fig. is a diagrammatic view similar to Fig. 3, but showing the bookthrown open in a second position.

Referring to the drawing for describing in detail the structure which isillustrated therein, the reference characters L and G indicate the topand bottom cover members of the book.

. The cover member G has a separately formed piece 1 pivotally connectedthereto as by a hinge joint 2, said piece constituting what, for thepurpose of this description, may betermed the bottom binder member ofthe-book.

The cover member L is pivotally connected, as by a hinge joint 3, with afurther separately formed piece H which, for the purpose of thisdescription, may be termed the rear edge binder member of the book, saidpiece H being in turn pivotally connected, as by a hinge joint 4, withan edge of the bottom binder member 1 opposite 70 to the hinge joint 2.

The leaves portion of the book, as illustrated, consists of a pile ofleaves 5. These may be normally loose with respect to each other butthey are preferably clamped together at one edge be 7 tween two stiff,usually metal, strips as 6 and 7 which may be held in clamped'rclationagainst the sheets by appropriate means, such as by rivets or the likeas 8, so that the leaves portion of the book may at times be handled asan entity to be inserted or removed from the remainder of the book atwill.

The leaves portion ofthe book, including the strips 6 and 7 when saidstrips are present, is formed with one or more apertures as 9 therethrough by means of which the leaves portion of the book may bedetachably threaded onto a corresponding number ofposts 10, said postsbeing fixed rigidly to the, binder member 1 as at 11 so as normally toproject upwardly from said member 1 in a position so that the leavesportion 5 may be easily telescoped onto or off of said posts.

The posts 10 are preferably made hollow and threaded as at 12 so thatsuitable retaining screws as 13 may be inserted thereinto forcooperating with thebinder member 1 as clamp means between which theleaves portion 5 is held.

When the book stands in its normal closed position, as seen in Figs. 1and 2, the binder member 1 lies substantially flat in the same generalhorizontal plane as the bottom cover member G, and'the edge member Hextends upwardly along the edge of the leaves 5, approximately insurface contact against said leaves and against adjacent edges of thestrips 6 and '7, the top cover member L overlying the whole.

Assuming the book to be in this position, if new the cover L is thrownopen it may be made to stand in either of two different positions,

namely it may be swung only upon the hinge joint 3'and thus made tooccupy the position indicated by the dotted lines 14 in Fig. 3, or itmay be swung upon both the hinge joints 3' and 4 and thus made to occupythe position indicated by the full lines in Fig. 3.

When the cover L is in the position indicated by the dotted lines 14 itstands as an elevated support for any of the leaves 5 which may be swungover upon it and thus more efficiently supports said leaves tofacilitate writingupon the upper surface of said leaves in locationsclose to the general binder portion of the book.

If no writing is to be done upon these leaves. or if writing is to bedone thereon, further spaced from the binder portion of the book, thecover L may be made to swing down to the position shown in full linesand still constitute a suitable support for the leaves during thewriting operation.

When the cover L is in this lowered position it enables the leavesthereon to lie further down toward the surface of the table upon whichthe book is resting so that the book is flatter and there is thereforesomewhat less tendency for the an arc of only 90.

leaves to spring back to closed position.

' It will now be seen that if after the cover L has been thrown open asjust described a considerable number of the leaves is swung over upon itthe inherent resiliency of the accumulated leaves will becomeautomatically operable to cause the binder member 1 to swing upwardlyabout the pivot 4, as indicated in Fig. 4, this swinging movement of theportion 1 being facilitated by the hinge joint 2 and serving to elevatethe bottom cover G from its normalposition, Fig. 3, so as to follow andprovide an adequate support for the relatively few leaves which have notyet been thrown over upon the cover L.

This movement of the binder member 1 about pivot 4 transposes the postor posts 10 from their normal vertical position, Fig. 3, to anabnormalhorizontal position so that the portion of the leaves connected withsaid posts now extends verti'cally upwardly instead of being horizontalas before. Those leaves, which have been thrown over upon' the cover L,are now required to make less of a bend than before. Instead of bendingthrough an arc of 180 they now bend through Their portionswhich are onlyslightly spaced from the posts are thus lowered toward the surface ofthe cover L and can be more readily pressed down toward or againt saidsurface in order to facilitate writing upon the sheets near to theposts.

. tioned parts are all made of sheet-metal suitably formed and connectedas'indicated.

Preferably the member H is so formed and proportioned with respect tothe remainder of the structure that when the parts are in the positionas indicated in Fig. 4, said member H will provide a stop, as at 15,against which a part, for instance an edge of strip 6, of the leavesportion of the book may engage and rest so as to limit excessiveswinging of the parts I and H with respect to each other when the leavesare in the position referred to in Fig. 4.

In making the part 1-1 of sheet-metal the main or body portion thereofmay be arranged tangential with the inner side of the hinge portionsthereof so as thereby to stand in a better position to support theleaves portion when the book is thrown open.

In making the part 1 of sheet-metal the body thereof may be disposedsubstantially midway between the top and bottom planes of the hinges 2and 4 so as to accommodate the strip 7 in a relatively recessed upperportion of said part 1 and allow the leaves to extend flat across thehinge 2 and along the upper surface of the cover G, the cover beingtangential with the upper plane of the hinge 2. At the same time therivet-head portion 11 of the post 10 is accommodated within a relativelyrecessed under-portion of said part 1 so as not to bear upon or injurethe surface of a desk or table upon which the book may be laid.

The cover L is preferably disposed tangential with the upper portion ofhinge 3 so as to provide the necessary clearance for the posts 10 andscrews 13 without necessity for undue width of the binder member 1-1.

As many changes could be made in this construction without departingfrom the scope of the invention, as defined in the following claims, itis intended that all matter contained in the above description, or shownin the accompanying drawing, shall be interpreted as illustrative onlyand not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

A book structure comprising top and bottom stiff cover members, andmeans providing hinge connection between said two cover membersconsisting of a rear edge binder member and a bottom binder member, afirst hinge by which the rear binder member is hingedly connected alonga its upper longitudinal edge to the rear edge of the top cover member,a second hinge by which the bottom binder member is hingedly connectedalong its forward edge to the rear edge of the botill) tom cover member,and a third hinge by which the remaining longitudinal edges of the twobinder members are hingedly connected together, together with meanscarried by the bottom binder member by which a leaves portion may befixed solely to said bottom binder member leaving all said cover andbinder members free to swing with respect to each other upon all saidhinges, said first hinge being arranged to permit the top cover memberto swing to open position constituting an elevated support for leavesswung open thereonto, the first and third hinges co-acting with eachother to permit the top cover and the rear binder member to swing to acommon horizontal open position, and the second and third hingesco-acting with each other to permit the bottom binder member to swing toa vertical position holding the bottom cover member in positionconstituting an elevated support for leaves thereon.

